Friday 4 January 2008 10.10 EST
First published on Friday 4 January 2008 10.10 EST

Law & Order: Sun Hill ... ITV's The Bill. Photograph: Steve Peskett

As not quite everyone is back to work this week, there is still a strange feeling of limbo in the air. It is, one imagines, a bit like being on bail. This being the case, it's all too easy for one's mind to wander down neural pathways overgrown and neglected by the gardener of the brain. See! There's one there - an extended metaphor going nowhere. I have also been exercised by the following:

Apparently, ITV is in advanced talks with NBC about a British version of Dick Wolf's mighty American franchise. Kudos - the producers of Spooks and Hustle who can do wrong, unless you count The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and E4 teen drama, Nearly Famous - are to co-produce the show which will be the first non-American English language version of any L&O show. A 13-part series is expected next year, signalling another move towards longer runs for British series and the abandonment of the six-parter.

Spin-offs from successful shows are hardly new and there have been rumours of a CSI episode set in London ever since its executive producer, Carol Mendelsohn, floated the idea back in 2005 I myself would favour a Clapton Scene Investigation but only so I could lobby for a walk-on part.

But Law & Order? How boring. Being totally precinct-bound and formulaic beyond measure, I think we can do without one set in sunny Wimbledon or wherever. Would we even swallow a British cop show done like an American one, when we're so used to our own, more genteel variety? The Bill has improved immeasurably lately - and next week has an impressive story featuring Katy Cavanagh as a Myra Hindley-esque killer - but it's not quite up to American standards just yet. And surely part of the appeal of US cop drama is its otherness?

I'm all for importing the ambition, storytelling slickness and production values of US shows to British drama but couldn't we do that without copying an American format - especially one as rigid as L&O? Besides anything else, the L&O franchise isn't the all-conquering behemoth it once was. While Special Victims' Unit thrives (yay!), Criminal Intent was recently relegated to cable. Somewhat typically, you might say, Britain's jumping on the bandwagon just as it grinds to a halt.